THE WIRELESS WORLD.

Wairarapa Age, 8 April 1933, Page 3

THE WIRELESS WORLD.

RADIO NEWS AND NOTES. At the Leningrade station all the announcements and most of the talks are given by women. At the studio, with the exception of the symphony orchestra, which has over sixty performers, all the duties are conducted by the fair sex.

In Latvia there is only one broadcasting station. A license costs about one shilling and cightpence per month, reduced during summer months to half the amount. Laws are in force protecting the listener from man-made static. The 15-kilowatt transmitter is powerful enough to effectively cover the whole country for even modest receivers.

After carrying out experiments with more than 900 different valves an American engineer has succeeded in making valves which require no filament. They vary in size according to the functions they are called upon to perform and are filled with hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, or neon gas according to the purpose for which they are required. It is believed the invention offers great possibilities, and although further experiments are to be conducted before the valves are placed on the market, a further impetus to radio development is assured by the discovery.

The British Radio Research Board during 1931 endeavoured to answer this question, “What signal will be received at any point on the earth from a fully specified transmitter at any other point?” The combined radio research laboratories of the whole world have not yet been able to give a full answer to the question, but an attempt has been made to express the effect of the upper atmosphere on radio waves, by a mathematical formula. This had led to a large amount of figuring as it is desired to evaluate the formula numerically for particular cases, so that the results may be of use to engineers.

Will 1933 see the advance in television that is needed to put it on an equality with broadcasting in popular esteem? Hope centres round experiments which the British Broadcasting Company, in conjunction with Mr. J. J. Baird, the pioneer televisionist inventor, are conducting in ultra-short-wave transmissions. Stripped of technicalities, the problem is to find room in the ether for television, which is much more prodigal of space than speech or music. Clearly a home must be found for it outside the congested broadcasting wavebands, where in Europe high-■ powered broadcasters are already jostling one another. The ultra-short-wave region offers a prospect of ample space, for television, and experiments are now being conducted by the 8.8. C. with a transmitter working on 7.3 metres, at Broadcasting House, and by Mr. Baird at his Long Acre headquarters, with a transmitter employing the wavelength of 6.1 metres. However, the practical difficulties met in utilising wavelengths of this order are formidable. The conclusion seems to be that if a satisfactory wireless channel can be found for the transmission to the home of results already achieved in the laboratory, then T 933 will see a decisive advance.